Airborne tabs ... - Page 4 - British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum

Luc · #46 14-01-14, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdr

Why do you have to be such a hater??

I don't hate you Jack, I was just loosely referring to the Chairborne militaria business model.

jdr · #47 14-01-14, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luc

I don't hate you Jack, I was just loosely referring to the Chairborne militaria business model.

Luc you don't know the half of what I do. The stuff you see on my website is probably about 20% of the gear I sell.

The best stuff which I source from private collectors, militaria fairs and dealers is either kept in my collection or sold to a list of regular buyers who I meet face to face or email (many of which are members here) which I would never need to put on my website.

The beauty of a website is the ability to put oneself out there - people contact me all the time wanting to sell bits from their collections and building a reputation if you can call it that. As a marketing tool it is brilliant. There's no such thing as bad publicity as they say.

And to go back to your original point of my business model. Anyone is free to buy from eBay. Most of the stuff I buy and put on my website doesn't sell but that isn't the point of it. It's no big money earner. I already have a good job and do not need to earn extra money. The point of it is to make me a well known person in the collecting world. People see I pay money for stuff so they come to me to sell it. It also makes me a first point of call for people wanting to shift high end items that they will happily know I'll put away in my collection.

In the last 2 years I have bought 4 world class collections of airborne or commando items through my website or by knowing people. I rarely post any of the stuff I buy or have in my collection nowadays because of people making comments on forums.

appie_b · #48 15-01-14, 07:29 AM

Hi,

This price does not surprise me, looking at the rise in prices for airborne insignia over the last few years, I guess with WW2 airborne insignia the sky is the limit

For you guys who bought these in the 70's for GBP 35, thats a nice little ROI.

regards,

Albert.

Frank Kelley · #49 15-01-14, 10:08 AM

Hello Albert,
I started collecting in the late 1970's as a school boy and I can tell you that they were not as expensive as £35 in those days, an Aircrew Europe Star was £35 back then for gods sake, a lot of money!
The stuff was around in quantity and if you had the money it could be bought
£35 was the price I would be paying in 1989-1990 period, moreover, I did not have all the nasty fakes and forgeries to deal with back then, a few years ago, a well known militaria dealer had some glider badges made up and I am shocked that they are now being sold as original by yet more idiots.
You could buy, for example, a QVC Devon Regt cap badge for £25 then, if I bought that today, I reckon I could, if I looked hard enough, get one for around the £35-£40 mark, so you see, Airborne, has gone up out of all proportion, it is complete madness!

But then, more and more people collect it these days and not just here, yourself, Luc and Herve for example.
Kind regards Frank

Quote:

Originally Posted by appie_b

Hi,

This price does not surprise me, looking at the rise in prices for airborne insignia over the last few years, I guess with WW2 airborne insignia the sky is the limit

For you guys who bought these in the 70's for GBP 35, thats a nice little ROI.

regards,

Albert.

half12 · #50 15-01-14, 04:42 PM

Hello,

Internet has created a "world village". When I started my collection at the end of 70', I had a near 6 hours travel to come to London for shopping ... now it takes me less that 1mn to see what to buy in UK, USA, New Zealand... or Zimbabwe.
In France at that time, we were not a lot interested in british militaria (good days...).

What I mean is there is now more collectors + you can access everywhere in the world at the same time + original items become rarer = prices increases.

Question : is it a good or bad thing ? ... don't know ... in bids, to make a price, you need to be at least 2 bidders.

Fortunately, Bill Gates is not a badge collector ... prices could be much more higher

Best regards .. Herve

silverwash · #51 16-01-14, 12:50 PM

old story of supply and demand. apart from school swap days the first time I exchanged cash for militaria was the beginning of the seventies. I have always found ' Airborne ' related items to be thin on the ground ( pre-Internet ) and have never been able to acquire the ' exotica '. the items illustrated were purchased off a SADAC'S member back then. according to my records they were eight quid apiece. my weekly wage was twenty eight pounds gross.

rhodesianmilitaria · #52 16-01-14, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by half12

Hello,

Fortunately, Bill Gates is not a badge collector ... prices could be much more higher

Best regards .. Herve

Bill Gates is too busy creating stuff that doesn't work properly so that it can be sold to us idiots in the world that use it. So he doesn't have time for collecting.